Part 53 (1/2)
”King,” she said, ”I ah any wanton folly of , you have been hardly used, and, as you say, hitherto you have dealt ithwas, so that I, you say you loveupon a word of yours, would that word remain unspoken?
”Such was my case: I spoke the word and for one short hour I betrayed you Will you, whose heart is great, bindfros? If this is so, then I have erred strangely inof your mind, for till now I have held you to be a man ould perish ere he fell so low as to force a helpless woman to be his wife, one whose crime is that she deceived hi her hands as though in prayer, looked up into his troubled face with beseeching eyes; then, as he did not speak, she went on:
”King, I have one est and you can take me, but you cannot hold me, for that hour would be my last, and you but the richer by your broken honour and a dead bride”
Olfan was about to anshen Soa, fearing lest Juanna's pleading should prevail against his passion, broke in saying, ”Be not fooled, King, by a woman's pretty speeches, or by her idle threats that she will kill herself She will not kill herself, I know her well, she loves her life too much; and soon, when you are wed, she will love you also, for it is the nature of us women to worshi+p those who master us Moreover, that man, the Deliverer, is not her husband, except in name; for , take her now, this hour, or live to mourn her loss and your own folly all your life's days”
”I will not answer that slave's falsehoods,” said Juanna, drawing herself up and speaking proudly, ”and it wereI have spoken; now do your will Be great or little, be noble or be base, as your nature teaches you”
And suddenly she sank to the ground and, shaking her long hair about her face and arlanced at her, then he turned his head as though he dare look nohis eyes fixed upon the wall
”Rise, Queen,” he said hoarsely, ”and cease your tears, since you are safe from me Now as always I live to do your will, but I pray you, hide your face from me as much as may be, for, Lady, my heart is broken with love for you and I cannot bear to look on that which I have lost”
Still sobbing, but filled with adenerous, Juanna rose and began to murmur thanks, while the captains stared, and Soa ently ”It seeht, or perchance you fashi+oned it as you would have it be Now, having done with love, let us to war Woman, what is the secret of that door?”
”Find it for yourself,” snarled Soa ”It is easy to open when once you know the spring--like a woman's heart, Olfan Or if you cannot find it, then it can be forced--like a woman's love, Olfan Surely you who are so skilled in the winning of a bride need not seek ave it but now upon the first of these matters, you would not hearken, Olfan, but were ht of tears that you should have kissed away”
Juanna heard and from that moment made up her mind that whatever happened she had done with Soa Nor was this wonderful, for feomen could have pardoned what she had suffered at her hands
”Drive the spear into her till she speaks, coave upand told the secret of the door
CHAPTER xxxVI
HOW OTTER CAME BACK
After he had rested awhile at the bottolacier, Otter set to work to explore the cliff on the top of which he found hi at its foot till nightfall, when he hoped to findhimself in communication with Olfan Very soon, however, he discovered that if he was to return at all, he must follow the same route by which he had come
Evidently the tunnel sloped upwards very sharply, for he was standing on the brow of a precipice cut into three steps, which, taken together, ht, and, so far as he could see, it was utterly impossible to descend any of these cliffs without the aid of ropes Nor could he continue his investigations over a wide area, for about four hundred paces to the left of the opening to the subterranean passage--whereof, by the way, he was very careful to note the exact position--the mountain pushed out a snowy shoulder, with declivities so precipitous that he dared not trust hiht-hand side, but with no better luck, for here he was stopped by a yawning rift in the rock Now Otter sat down and considered the situation
The day was still young, and he knew that it would be foolish to attempt escape from the pool before dark In front of hie, it reached a pass which lay some two miles off, at the base of thatof the dawn Part of this declivity was covered with blocks of green ice, but here and there appeared patches of earth, on which grew stunted trees, shrubs, and even grass and flowers Being very hungry, it occurred to Otter that he etation
With this hope he began to climb the slope, to be rewarded in due course by the discovery of a vegetable that he recognised, for it was the same which had been offered to him on the occasion of his unlucky outbreak that had resulted in the casting away of the rubies
With this poor food the dwarf filled hih thatto see what therethere without any great difficulty, Otter stood astonished, although he was not iven to the study of scenery Below hi belt of rivers that, fed from the inexhaustible er hidden in mist--which they had trodden on their journey Above his head the hty peak towered thousands of feet into the air, till it ended in a su eternally to the heavens Before hier, es of black rock, and laid one beneath the other like white sails drying upon the slopes of a sandhill
Gradually, as the eye travelled doard, these snow-fields greer and fewer, till at last they vanished altogether, and their place was taken, first by stretches of grass-land, and finally, at the foot of the mountain, by what seemed to be a rich and level country interspersed with clumps of bush and forest trees